The Tale of the Knit and Natter.

Well I did decide to go for simplicity and started the tie front shrug as seen in the picture. I did also cast on for 'Odessa' but haven't got the right lenght circular needles, mine are way too long and I've just discovered that I don't have 3.5mm DPN's as I thought. So Odessa (brown in the picture) will have to sit on the back burner until I either buy one 3.5mm in the right size or splash out on a new set of shorter bamboo circulars from JoyceSuperShop on e-bay along with some DPN's. Anyway back to the knitting group.

I'd figured out the day before exactly where I needed to get to as even though I've lived on The Wirral for years I still have a dreadful sense of direction in some areas (i.e. most places!). Anyway I arrived at 7.45pm and found I was the first to arrive. I had the usual panic - is it Tuesday? am I in the right place? do I really want to search a pubload of blokes watching the footie to find knitters? And as I was loitering in the doorway I saw people coming in and I recognised the free knitting bag from 'Simply Knitting Magazine' - I'd found them! There were a nice mix of ages and projects and it felt nice to sit and knit in a big group. Actually it felt really natural to be in a big group of people all talking about knitting, spinning, dying and yarns whilst we all knitted. It was a nice way to share information as well and I found out about new yarn shops (well, new to me!) and tips for e-bay and JoyceSuperShop (cunning use of currencies!). There were things we all knew about (knitty) and one lady (I am bad with names so can't produce them now!) said about a lovely kids Jacket from Bergere de France. So wasn't a coincidence when I said 'Do you mean this one?' and produced my latest F/O! It went down we with everyone admiring the yarn. And talking of which the yarn I was knitting (an e-bay YarnParadise special)went down well also - lovely colours, nice and soft.
There's one lady in the group who seems really talented and spins and dyes her own yarns. She'd brought her F/O with put mine totally in the shade (which is why it stayed in my bag for ages). She'd knitted a gorgeous rug on 90cm 15mm needles using 32 strands of yarn ranging from cotton to a whole host of mohair (at least 3 at all times). The result was a dense cosy rug that was so tactile and beautiful.
It was enjoyable and I really didn't notice how time flew and that by the time we left it was nearly 10pm! And of course this meant I was in danger of missing 'Lost'! Thank goodness it's repeated!